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Monday Matters: CASC Security Head Views Teamwork As Safety Key

Monday Matters: CASC Security Head Views Teamwork As Safety Key

Rachel Rodemann • Times Record / Bob Hendricks, head of security and campus police, discusses his law enforcement career in his classroom Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013, at Carl Albert State College at Poteau.

Monday Matters: CASC Security Head Views Teamwork As Safety Key

Rachel Rodemann • Times Record / Bob Hendricks, head of security and campus police for Carl Albert State College, previously served 20 years with the Poteau Police Department and retired as Poteau’s chief of police before joining the CASC faculty in 1995. Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013.

Hendricks is chairman of CASC’s Social/Behavior Science Division, he heads CASC’s campus police, and he teaches criminal justice. He’s been with the college since 1995, joining the faculty to teach for the Oklahoma Legislature-enabled COPs or Collegiate Officer Program. He joined CASC after retiring as Poteau police chief with 20 years in law enforcement. Hendricks said his background in local law enforcement makes forging relationships with other area agencies easier.

“We have a really good relationship with local law enforcement,” Hendricks said.

Hendricks said he and Poteau Police Chief Stephen Fruen even live in the same neighborhood. The local police department backs up calls on campus, and if there is a “hot” call off campus, the campus police will back up the local department, making sure everything is OK and assisting them, Hendricks said.

LeFlore County Sheriff Rob Seale, also a retired Poteau officer, said his department works with Hendricks in several ways.

Seale said the agencies share information if a student is involved in illegal activity in the county. If word trickles down through the campus grapevine about alleged illegal activity in the county, the campus police pass the word to his department, and vice versa, Seale said.

“It just takes all of us working together to best accomplish our goals. … In the end, the citizens in the county benefit from the cooperation of all the agencies,” Seale said.

Department Growth

Hendricks oversees a five-officer force — four stationed at the main campus at Poteau and one at the Sallisaw campus. He said two CASC officers are former Poteau police officers. All are certified police officers.

Hendricks joined CASC at then-President Joe White’s urging to teach the COPs program. The state enabled the college program because it couldn’t train police officers fast enough to fill law enforcement agencies’ needs through the state’s CLEET or Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training academy, he said.

When he started, Hendricks said, he taught full-time and oversaw the campus police part-time. Then, one officer at the Poteau campus watched the dormitories at night. Now the campus police cover the much larger main campus around the clock, Hendricks said. Because the Sallisaw campus is not residential, that officer works during class hours, Hendricks said.

“Of course, with only one or two officers on duty at a time, we depend on local police officers to help us out, and we help one another at events, too,” Hendricks said.

CASC President Garry Ivey said Hendricks wears many hats for the college, all important. Because the Poteau campus is residential, round-the-clock safety is high on the priority list, and the campus police provide a safe and secure environment, Ivey said.

Besides heading campus police and the social sciences academic division, Hendricks also leads CASC’s emergency management team, Ivey noted. Ivey said he cannot say enough about how fortunate CASC is to have someone with Hendricks’ qualifications and background.

Hendricks stresses that the campus department is a certified police department, not a security force. White made that decision after Hendricks joined the faculty. At the time, Oklahoma colleges and universities were told to declare their departments as one or the other, Hendricks said.

“We had certified officers at the time, and we talked about the advantages and disadvantages with Dr. White — the advantages of having the authority to do what police departments do, and that was the thing Dr. White wanted,” Hendricks said.

Issues CASC police deal with are those common to college campuses — drinking, disputes, Hendricks said. The biggest training change now is the emphasis on active shooters and emergency/disaster preparedness.

His career “war stories,” both funny and sad, serve in the classroom as examples of what the officers-in-training may face once on the street, Hendricks said.

Hendricks joined the Poteau Police Department in 1975, worked on the street for five years, then became the canine officer. He became an investigator, served as assistant chief, then served as chief for nine years.

Hendricks’ classes include forensic investigation and the same curriculum the CLEET academy uses.

While getting summers off is nice, his favorite part of his CASC career is visiting with his students and watching them develop into police officers as they work toward their associate degrees. A bonus is hearing from them after they leave and reading about them in newspapers.

Hendricks said the advantage of the COPs program is students are ready to go to work when they graduate as opposed to a department hiring someone off the street, then sending that individual to training. The degree also is transferable toward a bachelor’s degree program.